Colin Hoult is set to embark on a national tour in the autumn, after a full run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His new show Colin sees him set aside his trademark characters, such as Anna Mann, to perform as himself for the first time.

His promoters explain: "After years of playing characters, Colin is finally showing the person behind them in a hugely joyous stand-up show. Colin explores his relationship with his father (also named Colin) and his son, and how more than just a name can be handed down through a family.

"How can Colin understand his repressed (but quite bonkers) parents and make sure his children are given more freedom to be themselves? On the flipside, how can he live up to his 'proper bloke' of a dad who was such a natural leader with strong principles? And was his dad right to behave as he did, the 'proper bloke' who always asked 'why can't we be a normal family?'? Now with children of his own, Colin wants to leave the world better than he found it, and not repeat the complicated mistakes of the generations before him.

"But whilst you can take the man out of character, you can't take the character out of the man - and Colin intersperses his stand-up with fleeting comic snapshots of his family in deliriously funny act-outs.

"From gorillas and Ouija boards to Christmas memories, Colin's journey of self-discovery sees him explore his background, in his own unique way, as he looks back at his working-class roots and the importance of the name Colin: his rather drab birth right, and a handy shorthand for how literal the passing down of family problems can be!

"Acknowledging that his bizarre family was clearly full of undiagnosed neurodiverse people, Colin, who was diagnosed with ADHD two years ago, talks about how in his childhood, people weren't labelled as neurodiverse or had proper diagnoses, but whispered about as people deemed simply 'not right' - and this progress made with proper diagnoses and sensitivity to difference is, at least, something to feel positive about."

2024 dates

31 July - 25 Aug: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Pleasance Courtyard

23-28 Sept: London, Soho Theatre

03 October: Nottingham, Arts Theatre

04 October: Aberystwyth Comedy Festival

10 October: Bath, Rondo Theatre

11 October: Winchester, The Arc

12 October: Brighton, The Old Market

16 October: Guildford, Bellerby Studio, G Live

17 October: Corsham, The Pound Arts Centre

23 October: Birmingham Glee Club

25 October: Canterbury, The Marlowe Studio

27 October: Norwich, Playhouse

29 October: Newcastle, The Stand

31 October: Bristol, The Wardrobe Theatre

01 November: Swansea, The Grand

02 November: Reading, South Street Arts Centre

05 November: Leeds, The Wardrobe

06 November: York, Theatre@41

07 November: Bishop Auckland Town Hall

08 November: Manchester, Fairfield Social Club

09 November: Liverpool, Royal Court Theatre Studio

10 November: Chorley, Theatre

13 November: Edinburgh, The Stand

14 November: Glasgow, The Stand

21 November: Aldershot, West End Centre

22 November: Cambridge, Junction